Want a Tub of Potentially Listeria-Laced Blue Bell Ice-Cream? Sure, If You Have $10,000
Despite having reported cases of listeria and having undergone a product recall, consumers are still buying and selling Blue Bell ice-cream online for far more than it's regular selling price, according to reports.
Several listings for Blue Bell ice cream were posted on Craigslist with a far higher price than the usual grocery shelves.
Listed as a "collectible," a half pint of Homemade Vanilla is currently available on the community classifieds site for $2,000.
According to an Austin, Texas, TV station, a man in Spicewood, TX, attempted to sell a pint of Blue Bell's Krazy Kookie Dough ice cream for $10,000 on Craigslist (which works out to $625 per ounce).
"So far the seller has only gotten one offer; that offer was $20 to lick the lid. In the post the seller does say buyer assumes all responsibility for transport, and or any Listeria contracted from the product," KEYE-TV reported.
Another person listed their pint of "Krazy Kookie Dough" for a whopping $10,000 on Craigslist.
"What we have here is one pint of unopened Bluebell [sic] goodness. Purchased just mere weeks ago, this is like an oasis in the desert for you ice cream lovers," read the description on the post, which has also since been flagged for removal. "Buyer assumes all responsibility for transport, and or any Listeria contracted from product as well."
Blue Bell ice-cream made headlines after three people were made ill by Listeria between January 2014 and January 2015 had died in a Kansas hospital.
Listeria primarily affects pregnant women and their newborns, older adults and people with immune systems weakened by cancer, cancer treatments, or other serious conditions.
The company had 6.4 percent of the U.S. ice cream market in 2014, with $881.8 million in sales, ranking it third in the country, according to market-research firm Euromonitor.
